Yep. Not a shock. TR is the coach in waiting, wasn't a very fair deal for Trotz (only a $300k raise) coming off a SC win, he'll get PAID by someone, so probably agreed on that he'd walk and they'd promote Todd.

This is a big mistake by the Caps. And the Caps don't look good here. I don't care if the assistant is the next Scott Bowman.

@0TheRick0 (AKA The Rick)
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." ~ The Earl of Baltimore

This is a big mistake by the Caps. And the Caps don't look good here. I don't care if the assistant is the next Scott Bowman.

This was always the plan. More of the team, including the younger nucleus are bigger fans of TR.

Trotz is the one who quit here. He negotiated that deal 4 years ago, it's not like an option that wasn't likely to be picked up. It was an automatic thing if they won a title. He would have made almost $2m per, but on the market as a SC winning coach, he could get more. He quit, and the caps would be more vocal about him backing out of 2 years left on his deal if they didn't have a replacement already lined up.

This was always the plan. More of the team, including the younger nucleus are bigger fans of TR.

Trotz is the one who quit here. He negotiated that deal 4 years ago, it's not like an option that wasn't likely to be picked up. It was an automatic thing if they won a title. He would have made almost $2m per, but on the market as a SC winning coach, he could get more. He quit, and the caps would be more vocal about him backing out of 2 years left on his deal if they didn't have a replacement already lined up.

He brought home the SC... tear it up and give him the highest paid contract in the NHL. Anything short of at least offering to do just that is a bad look, IMO, and could come back to haunt them.

I've seen where teams and fans have been enamored with the assistant before... doesn't always work out. This reeks of arrogance. To let the guy who finally brought you a SC go because of... contractual black and white language/pride?

DuffMan and Dupin like this

@0TheRick0 (AKA The Rick)
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." ~ The Earl of Baltimore

He brought home the SC... tear it up and give him the highest paid contract in the NHL. Anything short of at least offering to do just that is a bad look, IMO, and could come back to haunt them.

I've seen where teams and fans have been enamored with the assistant before... doesn't always work out. This reeks of arrogance. To let the guy who finally brought you a SC go because of... contractual black and white language/pride?

That's giving a WHOLE lot of credit to one guy for a SC win. One could make the argument he just happened to be here when the team won. I like Trotz, but he's not worst wasting salary cap space on when you have one of the best assistants in the league that your team likes a lot.

And again, no one is letting him go, he's under contract for two more years. He quit. I don't understand people faulting the team like they did something wrong here. If a player quit and then shopped himself around as a FA you'd never let them live it down, they'd be the biggest bad guy ever, but a coach does it and people blame the team??

Jeremy - you can't be that naive - He quit? They let an insulting clause go into place, forcing him to quit - rather than treating him like maybe he had something to do with this Championship. I don't think it's right. In fact, I think it's bush league. Obviously I'm not going to change your mind, but mine is made up. This is a horse shit way of handling this situation, and I think it's the wrong move.

@0TheRick0 (AKA The Rick)
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." ~ The Earl of Baltimore

When it comes to the Caps I agree with Jeremy on a ton of stuff, but not on this.

I'm with Ricker on this one.

Yes Trotz had an option on his contract that kicked in if he won the cup, but to say he quit is a reach. He was one of the lowest paid coaches in the league and deserved more than a token raise. Jeremy you mentioned a Trotz raise wasting cap space, but I wasn't aware that coaches salaries went against the cap, did you mean the teams budget maybe?

I keep hearing how great TR is but what has he done that's so great? Maybe some behind the scenes stuff, but all I know is Trotz has 1 cup and TR has 0. Heck TR has 0 wins. I know this is about Mac wanting his guy, but damn when your coach gets you the cup I think you owe it to him to bring him back. Coach in waiting be damned. If they had come up short I could have gotten on board with this one, but not when he won it all. Jeremy mentioned some of the young guys liking him, does that include Carlson? It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on the UFA's.

-Trotz has attempted to renegotiate his contract for a couple years.
-The SC win/Add 2 years to his deal clause was given in 2014 prior to the coaching wage hikes thanks to mega deals for Babcock and Quenneville.
-Babcock and Quenneville changed the market for top coaches, Trotz wanted validation of being a top coach, in contract status
-Caps informed Trotz prior to this season, when he attempted again to negotiate a new deal, that due to his and the Caps propensity for 2nd round exits, if they didn't make it past the 2nd round, they would be parting ways from Trotz.
-Trotz wins SC, wants to be paid in the top 5 of coaches and a 5 year deal, according to MacClellan.
-MacClellan goes on to talk about how 5 years is the reason why, you can't give a coach 5 years.
-MacClellan then goes on to rave about Todd Reirden, who they wouldn't let interview at other places last off-season.

If I'm Reirden, I'm filing away how "loyal" the Caps were to Trotz for getting them over the hump. Now not only is TR the first coach in Capitals history to coach a Caps team with a Stanley Cup banner hanging from the rafters, but he's also replacing one of the greats. Hope he can handle that pressure.

Man, this one could really haunt us. Hope I'm wrong.

Dupin likes this

@0TheRick0 (AKA The Rick)
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." ~ The Earl of Baltimore

It's not naive. I told you before the season if he didn't win the cup, he was out. He was almost fired after last season (and why they didn't want to extend him then) and twice in season this year. I'm pretty sure people here were calling for his head after the last season or two.

You can't let finally winning one sum up an entire 4 years of work. This has been in place for a couple years now, he signed that deal 4 years ago with that clause in place. He was also the coach that choked on the best regular season record twice, and 100 point teams 3 times, or are we just forgetting that?

For me I do like Trotz a lot, don't get me wrong, but they had to bring in an outside coach from PIT (was a top assistant for Byslma) to coach the defense cause Trotz and his staff couldnt. Rierden is the reason Orlov developed, is the reason Carlson stepped up so well this season, is the development behind Kempny, Bowey, and Djoos, and make no mistake we NEED that development to continue. He's also EXTREMELY well liked in the locker room, especially by the younger kids, and respects analytics. He's exactly the kind of coach everyone here will be losing their minds we let go when we don't win the cup again the next couple years.

Ricker, don't even act like you won't be calling for Trotz' head when he doesn't win the cup next year, anything short of that and you will NOT be happy, we both know it. And it's ok too. This team is at that level, stanley cup contender, so you're going to expect more, just like you were fed up with making the playoffs and losing. But if you've got a team that will be extremely upset if an assistant leaves, and will most definitely regress defensively, is it a good idea to let that move happen? That's basically what we are faced with, either one leaving is a bad thing in a way, and one of them has to go. They could block Todd from going somewhere last year, they can't this year and they know teams are after him.

Now if they don't hire him and go a different direction, I'm probably right with you guys, but if Todd is the move, it keeps consistency, keeps a guy the team loves, and keeps that relationship with Carlson, Orlov, develops Bowey before Orpik is gone, etc. That's the move for me. Let Trotz go get PAID somewhere, and yeah, I meant budget, not cap, but we've got other places to spend money. It's like spending $60m on your bullpen in baseball, just not a good allocation of money, and the profit margin is razor thin in hockey, it's more volatile than MLB or NFL.

I was never calling for his head, I'll go back later and look through some of the posts but I don't recall many on here demanding Trotz be canned if any.

You can't let finally winning one sum up an entire 4 years of work. This has been in place for a couple years now, he signed that deal 4 years ago with that clause in place. He was also the coach that choked on the best regular season record twice, and 100 point teams 3 times, or are we just forgetting that?

I've never once seen a post from you in regards to Trotz and the team choking. Your responses to past playoff failures were always logical and level headed. Hot goalie, injuries, luck (it's part of the equation we saw it this playoffs) just to name a few, now that he is gone to see you refer to those seasons as he choked doesn't fly with me.

As far as Reirden goes, isn't that what assistants are supposed to do? Focus on certain aspects of the team while the HC oversees the entire team something like a Defensive coordinator and the HC.

HC experience is overrated. Every HOF coach was a first year HC with no experience at some point.

He's one of the smartest hockey minds in the game PERIOD. The players will relate and respect that they saw his game and knows what he did on the ice. He was a take charge leader when he was here, I think he'll be great honestly.

I'm not trying to pick on you here (there's plenty of decisions you could go back and throw in my face as well for how they've turned out) but you said alot of the same things about Oates. Young, smart, respected, knows offense, should improve the PP and how did that turn out?

Could TR turn out great yes, but we don't know for sure. Running the whole team is different from just focusing on parts of it. Would TR have been willing to fly to Russia last Summer to have a chat with Ovie about what he needed to do to improve his game? I think the Caps are taking a risk by doing this.